CHICAGO (Reuters) - Actor Jussie Smollett paid two brothers to stage a racist and homophobic attack on him and pose as supporters of President Donald Trump because he was unhappy with his pay on the hip-hop TV drama “Empire,” Chicago’s police chief said on Thursday.

Smollett, who is black and openly gay, was arrested on Thursday and charged with lying to police about the supposed attack on Jan. 29. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was visibly angered as he condemned Smollett’s actions.

Police did not spell out how the 36-year-old actor hoped to boost his salary by staging such a hoax.

“Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career,” Johnson told a news conference, adding that the actor paid the brothers $3,500 to stage the supposed hate crime.

“This stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with this salary. He concocted a story about being attacked,” Johnson said. “We gave him the benefit of the doubt.”

Police did not say how much Smollett is paid for his role on “Empire.” If convicted, he could face a prison sentence of one to three years.

A judge set bail at $100,000 and ordered Smollett to surrender his passport. The actor, who turned himself in early on Thursday, was released from jail after paying 10 percent of the bail amount as stipulated by the judge.

Smollett had claimed that two masked men struck him and put a noose round his neck while shouting “This is MAGA country,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. It was initially reported that an unknown substance was poured over him, but Johnson on Thursday said that was unclear.

The Smollett case touched off a furor in the United States as it tapped into increasingly heated political divisions since Trump’s 2016 election. Critics of the president have said his rhetoric has fueled racism and violence, while his supporters say the press has been too quick to embrace any news that appears to cast Trump and his supporters in a bad light.

Johnson told reporters that Smollett had first tried to gain attention by sending himself a threatening letter filled with “racial, homophobic and political language.”

“When that didn’t work, Smollett paid $3,500 to stage this attack and drag Chicago’s reputation through the mud,” the police chief said.

Prosecutors said one of the brothers had supplied Smollett with “designer drugs” in the past.

Near the end of the 48 hours in which police are allowed to detain potential suspects without charging them, the brothers “decided to confess to the entirety of what the plot was,” Johnson said. They became cooperating witnesses and were released two days later without charges.

Since the alleged attack, Smollett had received support on social media, including from several celebrities and Democratic presidential candidates. Others were skeptical of the incident, which Smollett said occurred around 2 a.m. on a Chicago street during one of the city’s coldest weeks in recent history.

In an interview with “Good Morning America” last week, Smollett said he was angry that some people questioned his story, and he suggested the disbelief might come from racial bias.

Johnson called for Smollett to apologize to the city and said he was worried that real victims might now be reluctant to come forward.

“My concern is that hate crimes will now be publicly met with a level of skepticism,” the police chief told reporters, adding that the city had bigger problems.

“I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention,” he said.

This is just what I expected to happen. Trump finally got his man in the Attorney Generals Office and now they are going to play Hard Ball. Nixon screwed up when he revealed that he had tapes in his office and the GOP will not let that repeat itself with Trump. Hopefully, Congress will get the information it needs to impeach the dumb a&& Trump!

More than $176 million was funneled from dark money groups to super PACs and hybrid PACs during the 2018 election cycle alone. Many of those dark money groups are closely tied to the political committees they fund, sharing staff, office space and other resources. In the 2018 election cycle, 20 partially disclosing groups made up of a super PAC and affiliated dark money arm spent over $1 million each. In multiple cases, they spent tens of millions.

That number does not include spending by “pop-up” super PACs that are legally allowed to hide their donors until after election day by strategically submitting formation paperwork after FEC deadlines then quickly pouring millions of dollars into a race.

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